When production
of the FE VX Series finished in July 1978 Vauxhall, in common with
all motor manufacturers, were legally bound to supply body parts
and panels for the cars up to five years after production ceased
and ten years in the case of service items such as brakes,
headlights etc. In the case of service parts it was not too much of
a problem because the Bedford CF would continue to use the engine
until 1984 and then Vauxhall would need to supply parts until 1994
– no problem. However, Vauxhall were approached in 1979 by
Hindustan Motors in India who were interested in acquiring the body
for production in India as an upmarket car to complement their
ancient Ambassador which was based on the 1956 Morris Oxford III
and had been in production since 1958. Hindustan wanted all the
tooling and presses for the entire body, some ancillary systems and
also the dashboard assembly which then left Vauxhall with a problem
that they would risk not being able to honour their legal
obligation for supplying some body parts. The solution was
interesting – as Hindustan were not planning to start series
production until 1984 and so agreed to supply any body panels that
Vauxhall needed, although a large stock pile had been built up by
Vauxhalls Parts Centre at Toddington prior to the tooling being
shipped to India in 1980. The cost to Hindustan was £1.5m including
all the blueprints for
manufacture.

2. PRODUCTION
& SPECIFICATIONS FOR INDIA:

One thing Vauxhall did not relinquish to Hindustan in the deal was
the rights to use the Victor, VX4/90, Ventora & VX Series model
names, strange because Vauxhall have not used any of them since
although the fact that they are now using the Viva name again means
perhaps they were covering all eventualities, in any event
Hindustan had their own name in mind they were going to use –
Contessa. A separate production line was set up alongside the
Hindustan Ambassador at the main Uttarpara manufacturing plant. In
August 1980 an engineering team was tasked with making the
mechanical changes which was mainly the engine & transmission,
they also used as many locally produced parts to replicate the
interior and dashboard. Three Indian built prototypes were handmade
in March 1981 and subjected to extensive testing which successfully
proved the car to be reliable and so by March 1982 10
pre-production test cars were made ready for evaluation by the
Indian press and the car was christened Contessa. When the VX
Series was built at Luton the production process was not state of
the art but the

quality of output was better by comparison with plants such as
Dagenham or Longbridge, however the production line set up at
Hindustan was very primitive by comparison, the cars were
essentially hand built but on a labour intensive production line
that hardly moved and the quality of fit and finish was
substantially worse than a Luton built VX Series.

It cannot be underestimated the impact the car had, a new car by
India’s main car manufacturer was very big news at the time and
also caused concern that it was going to replace the Ambassador
which it was never intended to do. In design the FE VX Series had
started to look dated by the time it was withdrawn in July 1978 but
in India compared to the Ambassador it was almost space age! The
only indigenous competitor was the short lived Standard 2000 which
was based on the Rover SD1. Unfortunately, under the “space age”
skin were “medieval” mechanicals! In order to save development
& production costs the Contessa was fitted with Hindustan’s
locally produced 1489cc BMC B Series engine that dated back to 1953
and a version of a BMC 4 speed gearbox from the same era with no
synchromesh on 1st gear. The engine produced 50bhp with the
standard compression ratio but a “high output” 54bhp engine was
available with a higher 8.3:1 compression ratio.

The Indian press were impressed by the exterior design, the quiet,
roomy & very comfortable interior and also the ride &
handling, it was only the second Indian produced car with
independent front suspension and the first with servo assisted dual
circuit front disc brakes, rack & pinion steering was a rarity
as well. What nobody was impressed by was the engine and
prehistoric gearbox combination, the car was grossly underpowered
with a top speed of 75mph and a 0 to 60mph time that could be
measured on a calendar. Surprisingly, the car did not enter series
production until March 1984 and in that time Hindustan made no
attempt to address the cars mechanical shortcomings.

Sales got off to a slow start with most cars going to government
and municipal officials where the complete lack of performance was
not a hindrance. Hindustan knew that any further development of the
B Series engine would give limited results and so in 1985 Hindustan
started negotiations with Isuzu of Japan to locally manufacture
engines and gearboxes for use in the Contessa and later in the
Ambassador, these were concluded in August 1986 and gave Hindustan
the rights to locally produce the Isuzu 1.8litre 4ZB1 petrol engine
and associated 5 speed gearbox. In October 1987 Hindustan launched
the revised Contessa Classic 1.8GL with the new engine &
gearbox along with updated grille & bumpers. The car was an
instant sales success and set new standards for refinement, power
and luxury in the Indian market, the ex-BMC engine was dropped at
the same time. The basic design of the Contessa remained
essentially the same throughout the model’s life although there
were minor updates to the specification with items such as power
windows, power steering, larger bumpers, updated headlights and air
conditioning all with the aim of keeping the Contessa competitive
in the Indian premium car market.

In the 1990 Hindustan started manufacturing the 2.0litre Isuzu 4FC1
diesel engine and in 1996 an Isuzu 4FC1-T turbo diesel version was
also added to the range which all proved popular with customers.
However, the Indian car market was now becoming attractive for
other multi-national car companies such as GM, Ford & Fiat, the
most successful of these was Suzuki who teamed up with Indian
manufacturer Maruti Tata and grabbed a major stake in the market by
offering modern, small fuel efficient cars ideal for the Indian
market. As demand for the Contessa continued to slide Hindustan
stopped production in 2002. The final model range comprised of
three models: Contessa 1.8GLX (Isuzu petrol), 2.0DLX (Isuzu diesel)
and 2.0TD (Isuzu turbodiesel).

3. SPECIFICATIONS:

4. PRESS & OWNERS PICTURES:

5.
BROCHURES:

6.
ADVERTISING:

Sorry for the poor
quality of the advertisements they are few and far between, I will
try and get some better versions in time